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Thursday, 11 August 2011

The Finishing Touch

I have a few handbags, well a lot really! Unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity to use them so often now that I work from home. I'm also one of those people who likes to have her handbag to match her outfit, which is one of the reasons why I have so many. I'm also the same with gloves and shoes. Though I do have a problem with the shoes, I have wide feet so there's a lot of lovely shoes out there that I could only fit my big toe in.!

Anyway, less about me and more about what this post is supposed to be about, the 'Finishing Touch' exhibition at the Lady Lever art gallery. It's about women's accessories and covers 1830 - 1940, that's shoes, gloves and bags, what more could a girl want, so I went to have a look yesterday with my Mum and Dad.

1920s portfolio of patterns.

One thing that I did learn was that originally shoes were made the same for both left and right feet, not shaped at all. In fact they sort of look like long tubes.

These shoes were Queen Victoria's.

These blue slippers are tapestry and lined with fur.

These boots are made with silk, and have lace ties up the side, but notice although the laces are on different sides the shapes of both the boots are the same.

Pointy 1920s shoes, at least by then the shoes were made for left and right feet separately, though they're still really narrow.

These slippers belonged to Queen Alexandra before she was married, the fronts were embroidered by her maid

These 30s shoes came from Russell and Bromley and could almost be a pair of today's shoes.

Handbags - there weren't too many handbags, but the ones that were their were beautiful.

This bag is decorated with glass beads.

Another beaded bag, though it is a lot later than the one above.

This is a combined muff and handbag, though it is made from beaver.

I'd definitely give this 30s evening bag house room, and certainly wouldn't look out of place today.

Hats, we don't wear them as often these days. In the 1830s you'd wear a cap in your house and a bonnet outside, depending on your social station of course. I have a couple of hats myself, a cerise cloche-style hat, a wide-brimmed blue and white sun hat, a couple of straw summer hats, and a few woollen ones.

A couple of Victorian ladies with their bonnets and parasols.

A wedding bonnet, with beautiful lace.

The back of a brown straw bonnet decorated with ostrich feathers.

The green part of this hat is made from horsehair while the bronze fabric is silk.

This hat is decorate with artificial pansies and an ostrich feather.

A 1920s straw cloche hat.

Gloves - at one time a woman wouldn't haven been seen without gloves and they were worn inside and out. These days we tend to only wear them outside to keep warm in winter and, of course, that would have been one of the reasons why women used to wear them in the house, as there was no central heating!

A pair of long lace mittens.

Jewellery - again there isn't a lot of jewellery in the exhibition, but there is is beautiful.

A selection of brooches.

A lovely necklace and ear-ring set.

These pictures just show a few of the items in the exhibition, and it, and the rest of the gallery is well worth a visit if you're in Port Sunlight. You have plenty of time to see the 'Finishing Touch' exhibition as doesn't close until 11 December 2011.